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Kerala Boatman's Crab Curry Reviews

A narrow strip of land at the southwestern tip of India, the state of Kerala is interlaced with a network of lagoons, canals, lakes, and rivers. Peddlers sell fish from these waters and other food by boat along the canals.

This curry is styled after the ones these boatmen cook for themselves. It incorporates many ingredients of the Kerala kitchen: black peppercorns, fiery red chiles, mustard seeds, and the ubiquitous coconut. In India they toss about 20 fresh curry leaves into the kettle along with the onion, garlic, gingerroot, chiles, and peppercorns. These aromatic leaves can be difficult to find in the U.S., but if you locate some, by all means use them.

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Reviews

Excellent - used it to use up some leftover crab meat. Not enough crab so I added shrimp and it was delicious. I did increase the amount of spice and added toasted cashews and coconut as condiments.

KArchibald
from Kaneohe, HI
/ 07.06.2012

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WOW! It took me 6 years to finally make this
recipe after tasting it at a restaurant and
hunting for it online. Having all the ingredients
on hand at the same time was somewhat of a
challenge and today I finally got it all together!
This recipe was tasty. I doubled the recipe for
all but the crab meat. I was out of onions, so I
used the white parts of green onions. I think I
may try it again with sweetened coconut milk
next time. I usually order it a Baluchis in NYC
and it is ridiculously good; this recipe is close
and good enough to sate a craving. But I can't
wait to get to Baluchis again.

kansas70
/ 03.16.2010

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I was really disappointed with this dish. I found it to be bland. I even added fresh curry leaves as stated in the recipe. It smelled great while I was cooking it but after I added the coconut milk, it just tasted creamy. There was not enough spice flavor. I ended up adding fresh chili peppers for more heat and added prepared curry powder. It smelled too fishy for my preference (maybe because I used canned crab meat?)Everyone else gave it rave reviews. Maybe I'm just spoiled with all the great Indian restaurants in the city.

A Cook
from San Francisco, CA
/ 06.06.2006

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Being from Kerala myself, I was curious to try the recipe. It was authentic tasting (I did increase the spices somewhat) and very flavorful. I plan to make it again.

A Cook
from Rockville, MD
/ 06.26.2005

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We've made it often from fresh Maine crab. It gets rave reviews.

flashflood59
from Boston, MA
/ 05.28.2005

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Delicious, easy, and unusual (in my kitchen, anyway). I used canned crab and light coconut milk, both of which worked fine. It's low-carb, too, if you skip the rice.

A Cook
from Concord, MA
/ 08.31.2004

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This turned out pretty good, but not as thick as i would have wanted. It might have been because i used light coconut milk instead of the regular. I also added quite a bit of extra spice. It was good though

Renae
from Oregon
/ 01.27.2004

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This was easy to make and very tasty. I used canned crab and it worked nicely. I will definitely be making this again.

A Cook
from Pasadena, CA
/ 10.07.2002

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A fabulously different way to make crab! Very, very good. It was spicy and delicious. I got raves and will definitely make again.